Shipbuilding device

ABSTRACT

A movable building structure surrounds a ship during its construction and is composed of a front frame and a rear frame each including pillar members supporting the building structure which spans across rails, one or more of which are laid on both sides of a building dock building the ship and also to one side of an area accommodating surface plates for assembling parts of the ship structure. The front and rear frames are combined into a boxlike construction and a plurality of overhead traveling cranes are supported inside of the building structure by the frames and pillars. The whole building structure rests on wheels or rollers which rotate on the rails, allowing the building structure to be moved along the rails in accordance with the progress of the shipbuilding works by a hydraulic winch.

United States Patent Inventors Appl. No.

Filed Patented Assignee Priorities SHIPBUILDING DEVICE 3 Claims, 5Drawing Figs.

11.8. C1 61/67, 114/65, 114/77 Int. Cl B631! 9/00, B63c 3/00 Field ofSearch 61/64, 68,

References Cited Primary Examiner-Jacob Shapiro At!orney-Sughrue,Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak ABSTRACT: A movable building structuresurrounds a ship during its construction and is composed of a frontframe and a rear frame each including pillar members supporting thebuilding structure which spans across rails, one or more of which arelaid on both sides of a building dock building the ship and also to oneside of an area accommodating surface plates for assembling parts of theship structure. The front and rear frames are combined into a boxlikeconstruction and a plurality of overhead traveling cranes are supportedinside of the building structure by the frames and pillars. The wholebuilding structure rests on wheels or rollers which rotate on the rails,allowing the building structure to be moved along the rails inaccordance with the progress of the shipbuilding works by a hydraulicwinch.

FATENIEB HERE? I979 SHEET 1 [1F 2 smrsmwino DEVTCIE BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a buildingstructure for overlying a ship or like large structure, and moreparticularly one which carries a plurality of overhead traveling cranesand weather protective members such as roofs and walls to surround theship during construction to protect the same from the effects of anyundesirable weather.

2. Description of the Prior Art Heretofore, although various proposalshave been made under the expectation of obtaining all-weather-typeshipbuilding facilities, none of them have yet proved to be satisfactorybecause some of them which cover the whole building dock of buildingberth and also the surface plate storage area involve an exceedinglyhigh initial cost. Those covering merely one or more of a plurality ofportions of the building dock or the like are not movable. Furthermore,the type employing the conventional Goliath" crane creates undesirabledeformations in its structural members although the crane is movablealong the building dock or the like area.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention provides ashipbuilding device which is movable along the building dock or thelike, and which, in sequence, can cover substantially whole working areain accordance with a suitable arrangement of the working schedule, andwhich is economical in its construction.

The invention provides sufficient protection against all kinds ofweather, allowing the assembling works of shipbuilding to be carried outin an automated manner.

The invention further provides a novel shipbuilding structure which hasthe least possibility of deformation, with the operation of the cranesor other assembling facilities thus being highly efficient. I

An additional object of the invention is to provide a novel constructionof a shipbuilding device which is comparatively light in weight and hasan improved movability.

These and other objects of the invention are achieved by a novelconstruction of a shipbuilding structure according to the presentinvention which comprises a front and a rear frame including a number ofpillar members mounted on frames which span across rails. One or more ofthe rails are laid on both sides of a building dock or a building berthand also to one side of an area accommodating surface plates for use inassembling ships or the like. The front and rear frames are combinedinto a boxlike construction. A plurality of overhead traveling cranesare supported on said frames and pillars. Means are provided forallowing the whole building structure to be shifted along theshipbuilding dock or the like and consist of antifriction members suchas wheels or rollers rotatable on the rails. Thus, when the buildingstructure is desired to be moved to another location, the device may beeasily tracted by employing separate traction devices such as hydraulicwinches.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing amovable shipbuilding structure according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 schematically shows various positions taken by the shipbuildingstructure of the invention in accordance with the progress of theshipbuilding works;

FIG. 3 is a schematical front view of a conventional Goliathtype craneoverlying a building dock.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. l, ashipbuilding structure according to the present invention comprises aplurality of overhead traveling cranes ll of heavy load capacity.Supporting means 2 means 2. Means d renders the shipbuilding structuremovable along rails 5, and comprise, for instance, wheels, rollers, orballs. Scaffolds 6 are movable vertically and horizontally for workingon the flank of the vessel. A plurality of overhead traveling cranes '7of light load capacity are intended solely to transport weldingapparatus to the desired working areas. Although not included as a partof the building structure, there are provided a plurality of conveyors 8for transporting building blocks and the like into the buildingstructure for vessel 9 now under construction.

In FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C, there are indicated the cases where thebuilding structure according to the present invention is moved from aposition A to position B and then to another position C in accordancewith the building schedule of the ship or other large structure.

In order to utilize the building device according to this inventioneffectively, the building work outdoors of the ship or the likestructure is so arranged that the work is sectionalized along thelongitudinal length and that the assembling work of each of thelongitudinally divided (laterally cut) sections is carried out accordingto a predetermined plan.

That is, when assembling work for one laterally cut section iscompleted, the subsequent laterally cut section of the ship' is thenassembled and the building device according to the present invention ismoved over to the new section prior to working on the new section. Bythis, the working area at any stage of the building vessel is alwayscovered by the building structure in spite of its partial coverage ofthe total building area. This advantageous feature, for instance,improves the working efficiency of shipbuilding which is in itselfeasily susceptible to weather conditions. To be more particular, thebuilding efficiency of the ship can be maintained constant even in rainyor extremely hot weather.

Furthermore, since a required number of small capacity overhead cranesare specifically provided for transporting the welding apparatuses,automation of the shipbuilding works can be easily attained. Becauselighting installations can be easily attached on the above describedframework and structural members, building works on a two or three shiftbasis can be easily exercised. The productivity in shipbuildinginstallation can be remarkably elevated.

If it is required, a plurality of such shipbuilding structure may beprovided at a single building dock or building slip, and a multipointparallel construction method can be exercised for shortening the workingperiod.

Considering the installation cost of each building structure, it isapparent that a building structure covering merely one part of thebuilding area can be built at a far cheaper cost than those covering thewhole area of the vessel or the like heavy structure.

In the building structure according to the present invention, aplurality of heavy load cranes can be employed at cheaper cost thanconventional Goliath-type cranes shown in FIG. 3. The reasons for thisreside in the facts that the span of the cranes can be shortened in thisbuilding structure over the conventional type crane because in thepresent invention, the cranes are disposed longitudinally so that theycan travel in the lateral direction on lateral frames: which aresupported by the intermediate pillars. Further, the load capacity of themembers employed for preventing torsional deformations can beindividually reduced because of the boxlike construction of the buildingdevice.

Another advantage attained by the boxlike construction of the buildingstructure according to the present invention is that the possibility oftorsional damage and falling of components is completely eliminated.

As for the moving or driving devices to be employed with thisshipbuilding structure, since it has been found that the structure neednot be moved around during its building operation, no provision of aself-driving device such as an electric motor is required. Thus, anoutside hydraulic or oil pressure jack thruster or a winch of minorcapacity may be employed with a sufficient result, and basicantifriction means such as fat provided with the building structure ofthe invention. However, it is of course possible to provide wheels forsupporting the building device although these are somewhat moreexpensive than the above described antifriction means.

V, In Alendal Shipbuilding Yard of Getterferken Co. in Sweden, ships arebuilt under a similar laterally cut block system as employed in thepresent invention and the ships hull is pushed out along the buildingarea employing heavy hydraulic pushers. However, such a procedureinevitably accompanies the restriction that the ship must be built inone direction from a starting point. Furthermore, due to the requirementof moving an extremely heavy body such as a ships hull, the abovedescribed shipyard had to provide two extremely expensive building docksand two pushers of heavy capacity for the purpose of shortening thebuilding period of the ships.

According to the present invention, any conventional building dock orbuilding berth can be used together with one or more building structureof the present invention, so that the double investment required for thebuilding dock having pushers and also for the building housing may beavoided. In addition, if a plurality of the building structures(ordinarily two) are prepared, a multipoint parallel construction may beexercised so that the shortening of the construction period andrationalized distribution of man hours during the building dockassembling period are realized, such features constituting a superiorcharacteristic of the building structure according to the presentinvention.

As is apparent from the above description, the employment of thebuilding structure includes frameworks including pillars which areconstructed over one part of a building dock or a building berth andalso over surface plate areas for assembling parts of blocks. Theyinclude more than four pillars supporting a plurality of overheadtraveling cranes; and roof and walls are provided over the framework forprotecting the same from the weather such as rain and hot directsunshine. There is also means for making the whole building structuremovable along rails laid along the building dock or the building berthand the surface plate areas. Substantially the whole of the working areamay be sequentially and selectively covered by the building structure sothat the work may be carried out without any influence of the weatherand the automation of various work related to the assembling of partsmay be facilitated. Thus, the working condition and efficiency in thebuilding of vessels or like heavy structures can be substantiallyimproved.

What is claimed is:

l. A building structure for a ship constructed in a building dock andprovided with assembling areas alongside thereof comprising a pluralityof pillar support members; a plurality of lateral frames carrying theplurality of pillar support members thereon and spanning across thebuilding dock; a pair of rails laid on both sides of the building dock;means connecting the lateral frames with the rails to permit movementalong the rails; longitudinal structural members interconnecting thelateral frames so that a boxlike construction of the building structureis fonned which extends partially along the rails; a plurality ofoverhead traveling cranes supported for lateral movement by the framesand the pillar members, and a pair of conveyors adapted to transportbuilding material into the building structure, said conveyors runningparallel to and being disposed between the pairs of rails on each sideof the building dock.

2. A building structure as in claim 1 where the means for permitting thebuilding structure to travel along the rails includes a fat employed inlaunching ships.

3. A building structure as in claim 1 where the support members form astructural H-shape above each conveyor.

1. A building structure for a ship constructed in a building dock andprovided with assembling areas alongside thereof comprising a pluralityof pillar support members; a plurality of lateral frames carrying theplurality of pillar support members thereon and spanning across thebuilding dock; a pair of rails laid on both sides of the building dock;means connecting the lateral frames with the rails to permit movementalong the rails; longitudinal structural members interconnecting thelateral frames so that a boxlike construction of the building structureis formed which extends partially along the rails; a plurality ofoverhead traveling cranes supported for lateral movement by the framesand the pillar members, and a pair of conveyors adapted to transportbuilding material into the building structure, said conveyors runningparallel to and being disposed between the pairs of rails on each sideof the building dock.
 2. A building structure as in claim 1 where themeans for permitting the building structure to travel along the railsincludes a fat employed in launching ships.
 3. A building structure asin claim 1 where the support members form a structural H-shape aboveeach conveyor.